As Through Ice
by OfficialEzrianxX
Summary: Based off of the 4x20 promo, my interpretation of Aria finding out about Ezra. What will happen? (ONE-SHOT)


_"Aria please come back, I'm sorry!"_ Spencer yelled, running after Aria as she made a dash out of the kitchen.

No, no,_ no._ It wasn't possible. It couldn't be possible. They had all their facts wrong. There was no way that Ezra was A. Aria bolted out of Spencer's house, furious that all 3 of her best friends would try and convince her to think that her boyfriend was A. That her boyfriend was the person that her, the girls, and Alison has to be afraid of. It just didn't add up.

Aria got into her car and watched as Spencer tried to stop her from leaving, but Aria was already out of the driveway and down the road. She was driving to the only place she knew of to be completely alone, Ezra's cabin. The roads there were dusty and barren, and for a few hours until her arrival, Aria was alone in her car with her just her thoughts to keep her company. Only, the visions in her head were less than pleasurable. The only things rushing through her mind was thoughts of Ezra. She had trusted him and he had given up everything to be with her. She had given her virginity to him. Ezra had risked going to jail and getting his teaching license revoked just so they could be together. Him being A just didn't make sense.

Aria parked in the front of the cabin and walked around to the back to retrieve the key. Ezra had shown her where it was located when they came here together. She unlocked the door and stepped inside. The cabin's homey atmosphere calmed her down a bit. Aria placed her bag down by the door and slipped her phone into her back pocket, in case someone like Ezra tried to reach her. She laid down on the couch in the living room and put her hands over her face. The past few weeks had been a wild ride. With Mike and Mona, breaking up with Jake then getting back with Ezra, A still being on the hunt, hearing from Alison again and finding her diary, then of course losing it, and now this. Aria was glad she had this time to work everything out with herself and calm down. She picked up her phone from her pocket as she heard it ring and saw a multitude of missed calls and texts from all the girls.

_Spence: Aria please. I'm so sorry but please answer us._

_Hanna: Please pick up your phone. we're worried about you :(_

_Em: Ar, please answer us. We are so sorry._

Aria groaned and deleted all the messages and shoved her phone back. She did not feel like talking to them, especially after accusing Ezra like that and yelling in her face when she refused to believe. Part of her just wanted to call Ezra and tell him to come up, but the other part was scared too, almost like she was beginning to believe. She pushed all the bad thoughts to the back of her mind and took a deep breath, almost instantly feeling a little more relaxed.

Aria turned her head and spied a manuscript laying on the coffee table in front of her. She smiled as she realized it was Ezra's. He almost never let her see what he was writing when he was. She grabbed it and flipped to the first page. After the first words, she couldn't believe what she was reading.

_"Everything Alison ever told me about herself was a lie. Lying was like her oxygen. She could do it while she was laughing; she could even do it while kissing you."_

Aria couldn't bear to continue. She felt as if she was going to throw up. The words on the page in front of her began to jumble, her vision became blurry as she came to realize that Spencer was right. Ezra knew Alison, and he had a relationship with him. Ironically, now everything that Ezra had told her now seemed to look like a lie. When he asked, "Was she a friend of yours?" At Alison's 'funeral', as if he didn't already know the answer.

Aria was stunned out from her thoughts when she heard a car door slam. Her blood ran cold as she peered cautiously out the window and saw Ezra heading straight for the cabin. Without even thinking, she bolted for the backdoor, the manuscript held tightly in her hands. She ran outside and hid in the nearby woods area, close enough to watch the cabin but far enough so Ezra couldn't see her. That's when it hit her, _her bag and her car. He had her keys and now she was stuck here._

* * *

As Ezra pulled into the rocky street to the cabin, he noticed Aria's car parked in front. What the hell was she doing here? Did she see anything she wasn't supposed to? Ezra parked his car a little bit away from her's and walked to the door; it was unlocked. When he opened the door, it all looked normal.

"Aria? Are you in here?" He called, hoping she'd just be on the bed sleeping or reading, no answer. Ezra looked around the room once more, as if searching for the slightest glitch and suddenly found that his manuscript was missing. She had read it, she knows, and now she has it. He searched around the cabin for her, opening every door and calling for her. When he walked back, he noticed her leather bag slumped against the wall next to the front door. Ezra picked it up and slung it over his shoulder, he knew she couldn't leave without her bag, seeing as though now he was holding her car keys that were inside. He walked outside and headed for the forest area.

"Aria, come out, come out wherever you are." Ezra boomed, his voice echoing through the woods.

Aria froze in fear as she heard his menacing voice, she tried to make a run for it, but her foot caught on a branch, sending her down on her leg and breaking the branch in the process. A large snapping noise rang through the woods, giving her away. A sharp pain coursed through her leg and she stifled a scream, knowing Ezra would find her. She looked down and pulled up her pants leg, a bleeding gash covered a few inches of her leg. She resisted the urge to cry out in pain and fear.

"You can run but you can't hide, Aria." She heard him yell into the oblivion of the deep forest. She felt a punch to her heart as she remembered him saying those exact words when she was having trouble with Jenna. Jenna, The Jenna Thing. Aria had foolishly told him all about The Jenna Thing and how it was all her and the girl's faults. She had fed him, A, information he could use against her and her friends unknowingly. How could she have been to ignorant?

"Aria, don't do this. Please come out," Ezra pleaded, again no answer. He was still walking in the direction that the loud snap came from. He pulled her keys out from his pocket and shook them, the noise of jingling was sent through the forest.

"There's no where to run, you might as well come out, love." Again, he was greeted with the silence of the night. That's when an idea hit him. He dug his cell phone out from the pocket of his black jacket and scrolled until he found Aria's name. He pressed call and kept on searching for her. He smirked when he heard Aria's signature ringtone echo throughout the forest.

Aria froze in fear as her phone started to loudly ring. She scrambled to set it to silence and stumbled as fast she could, through the forest on her non-injured leg. She spotted a sign for a ski lodge and makes a break for it as she bolted to the ski lodge to almost path to the lodge became more thick and dense, losing its distinctiveness as she ran on. Suddenly realizing she's lost the trail, Aria whips her head around wildly, desperately searching for the path again.

"Aria?" Ezra's voice became closer to her, almost as if he was right next to her. She dove into a dense patch thicket, hoping he wouldn't be able to spot her. Aria notices a human-like shadow come closer to her. "Aria, please come out." He begs, his voice more soft. Aria suddenly spots the lodge from afar and hauls herself out of the thicket as silently as possible. She darted for the lodge as fast as her leg-and-a-half could carry her. As she reached her safe haven, she noticed a ski lift and rushed over, hastily tries to pull the lap bar down, it started to close on its own but before it fully shut, Ezra slipped in next to her. Aria held back a scream as tears filled her eyes and she held in tightly to the manuscript in her hands. Aria desperately tugged on the metal lap bar, trying to escape from this nightmare.

"I didn't want it to happen like this." Ezra confessed as she struggled in her seat. Aria pulled her legs up to her chest and whimpered in pain as her hand brushed the still bleeding cut on her limb. Ezra slid closer to her and stared at her straight in the eyes. "Where is it?" He spied the manuscript grasped tightly in her hands and made a reach for it. Aria was too quick and held it over the ski lift, dangling the papers over the edge. "Don't." Ezra growled, again trying to make a reach for the papers.

"Why shouldn't I? Everything you ever told me was a lie. You're no different than she was." Aria whimpered, her voice becoming weaker with each word that spilled out of her.

"I've lied about a lot of things, but not about my love for you." Ezra stared at her straight in the eyes, daring her silently to do the same.

"Don't." Aria, desperate to put distance between the two of them, kicks Ezra in the chest, as Jake taught her, sending him back on the other side of the lift. The lift shakes and starts to rumble with noises.

"Aria stop." Ezra wheezes, rubbing his chest in pain. "I know this is bad but please hear me out." He attempted to move closer, to calm her down. He reaches out to touch her shoulder, something he knows that usually calms her.

"Don't you dare touch me." She snaps, recoiling from him. Ezra sighs and stays where he is. "Hear me out, please."

"You lied to me. You knew Alison and you had a relationship with her. You used me to get to her; you pretended to care about me. What's left to explain Ezra?"

"Aria please, I-"

"No! Nothing you can say will fix this! I don't even know you!" She sobbed, Ezra felt his heart break a little at the sight of this. She was breaking down and she wouldn't let him do anything.

All of a sudden, the lift chair screeched to a halt at the top. Aria peered over the side of the chair and fear filled her body at the sight of how high up she was. How high up she was, stuck up there with this monster.

"Aria, I know I've lied a lot to you and made the biggest mistake of my life. But I just want you to understand." Tears filled Ezra's own eyes as he watched Aria in such a broken state, one he couldn't help her out of. He was the reason she was like this, she was afraid of him.

"Did you know me when you walked into that bar? Was that whole memory a lie?" Ezra hesitated answering, but then sighed and nodded ruefully.

"I did know you. That's why I applied for the job at the high school, to watch you four. My whole plan was going perfect, until I realized that I had fallen in love with you."

"Stop. T-that was you in Ravenswood, wasn't it? That was your lair. You were the one in the gas mask costume."

"Yes it was. I had to find Alison."

"Why, Ezra?" Aria sobbed, Ezra shook his head and groaned.

"I can't tell you why. But I was sent to find her, I don't know what that person wanted or who they were but I needed to find her too, for my own sake. I never lied about my feelings for you, Aria. I'm still in love with you." He pleaded, Aria gave no answer. Ezra tentatively reached out to touch her, hold her. Aria's whole body tensed up and her breathing quickened as she felt Ezra's hand resting on the small of her back. He kept it there until she had relaxed again, Ezra quickly wrapped his arm around her waist and pulled her flush against his chest. Aria struggled to get out his grasp but it only made Ezra tighten his arms around her.

"Stop struggling." He growled. Aria tightened herself up in a small ball and buried her head in between her knees as she sobbed. Ezra held her like that and before they knew it, the lift started again and they were ushered down to the bottom. Aria hastily made her way out of Ezra's grasp and grabbed her bag out of his hand, she quickly made a break back for the cabin. Ezra didn't chase after her. There was no reason to, he had lost her. It would take an eternity for him to forgive himself and for her to forgive him, but he was willing to wait.

* * *

Aria stared up the ceiling of her room, tears streaming down her face as she relived the horrific memories of the night. The one she loved was now the one she had fear. It still didn't make sense and that killed her, even when they were up there, he was still lying to her. If he loved her so much, why would he put her through all of that? His revelation numbing all emotion but pain.

As she whipped her head around in agony, Aria's eyes caught sight of a book that was resting on a table next to her bed, _Poetry Composition_. She gingerly picked up the book and flipped to page 22, like she always had.

_It's number_

_It's a song_

_It's a girl_

Aria couldn't bare to read anymore of it. These once love filled stanzas now only filled her with pain and anger. She now denied their meaning, Ezra couldn't have loved her if he was willing to do all of this to find Alison. Aria, with all her might, hurled the book across the room and relished in the sound of it loudly slamming against the frame of her door.

_Smooth._

_Pearl joy packed._

_Gold falafel,_

_As through ice._


End file.
